Radio and television presenter, stage and screen actor
Years active
1949–2002, 2008, 2021–present
Peter Murray James,
OBE (born 19 September 1925),[1][2] known professionally as Pete Murray, is a British radio and television presenter and actor.[3] He is known for his career with the BBC including stints on the Light Programme, Radio 1, Radio 2 and Radio 4. In the 1950s, Murray became one of Britain's first pop music television presenters, hosting the rock and roll programme Six-Five Special (1957–1958) and appearing as a regular panellist on Juke Box Jury (1959–1967). He was a recurring presence in the BBC's coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest. Murray returned to broadcasting for a Boom Radio special on Boxing Day 2021, over 70 years after his career began. He returned to the station on Boxing Day 2022 where he presented a two-hour show alongside his friend, David Hamilton.[4]
Joe Brown and the Bruvvers, the Who and many others. These were shown on television. In September 1968, he stood in for Alan Freeman on Pick of the Pops
, while Freeman was in New York. Murray linked up with him for a look at the American pop scene during the two shows that he did.
Murray hosted the UK heat of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1959 and provided the British commentary for the contest itself on both radio and television in 1959 until 1961 and in 1968 and again in 1972 until 1973 for radio, and television commentary for the 1975 and 1977 contest. He was an occasional compère of variety shows at the London Palladium.
Murray was one of the original
Welcome Back, My Friends, to the Show That Never Ends ~ Ladies and Gentlemen
' as the master of ceremonies, at the beginning of the album.
In 1980, Radio 2 moved Murray from weekday to weekend programming. In 1981, he began a move into more serious, speech-only radio with a stint as presenter of Midweek on
Variety Club of Great Britain award for his show. He introduced his last programme there on 22 December 2002 and has not broadcast regularly since. In August 2008 he returned as a presenter on an Internet-only station, UK Light Radio.[9]
Murray also appeared in pantomime, and guested on many radio and TV panel games. In 1984 and 1985, he was a team captain on the
Big Centre TV hosted by his friend and former radio colleague David Hamilton. Murray returned to radio to host a special show for Boom Radio on Boxing Day 2021.[14] In 2022, he appeared in the Channel 5 documentary TOTP: Secrets & Scandals.[15]
He returned to Boom Radio on Boxing Day 2022 for another show, this time alongside Hamilton.
Personal life
Murray married his first wife, Germain, in
Wycliffe College, also an actor, committed suicide at the age of 27, and afterwards he gave talks on coping with family tragedy.[17]
He is a lifelong
BBC TV's early-morning magazine show Breakfast Time. During an outburst, he told viewers how to vote at the upcoming election, saying that "a vote for Labour is a vote for communism. May God have mercy on your soul if you don't vote Conservative".[18] At the end of 1983, the BBC cancelled his radio shows, describing his style of broadcasting as too old-fashioned.[19]
Publications
(With Jeremy Hornsby) One Day I'll Forget My Trousers (autobiography), London, 1975.